Panthers in DC to face Capitals in clash of division leaders
Florida has won three straight but they all came on home ice
It's been a busy visit to our nation's capital for the Florida Panthers.
The Cats arrived in town on Monday and headed to the White House with the Stanley Cup in tow for a special ceremony with President Donald Trump.
Now, the defending Stanley Cup champions will get back to work, playing the Eastern Conference leading Washington Capitals on Tuesday night at Capital One Arena.
So far this season, the Capitals have been one of the biggest surprises in the NHL.
The big story surrounding the Caps early on was superstar Alexander Ovechkin’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s all time goal scoring record of 894.
When the season started, Ovechkin had 853 goals, needing 41 to match Gretzky’s mark.
Despite missing six weeks and 16 games due to suffering a fractured fibula, Ovechkin has still managed to rack up an impressive 24 goals in just 36 games.
That leaves him 17 goals shy of Gretzky’s mark with 30 games remaining on the Caps’ schedule.
In addition to the amazing story of Ovechkin chasing down The Great One, the Captials have had themselves one hell of a season so far.
Entering play Tuesday, Washington holds a 34-11-7 record. Only Winnipeg has a better record, and they’ve played two more games than the Capitals.
While the Caps haven’t lost more than two games in a row at any time this season, they will put that to the test against Florida after dropping each of their past two in overtime.
The Panthers are riding a modest three-game winning streak after sweeping last week’s homestand.
Rookie Mackie Samoskevich has been battling an illness and missed each of Florida’s past two games.
The hope is that he was well enough to travel with the team and play during the road trip, but that update won’t come until after Florida’s morning skate.
If he can’t go, expect Jonah Gadjovich to slot back into the Panthers lineup.
Here are the Panthers projected lines and for Tuesday's clash with the Capitals:
Carter Verhaeghe – Sasha Barkov – Sam Reinhart
Mackie Samoskevich – Sam Bennett –Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen – Anton Lundell – Evan Rodrigues
A.J. Greer – Tomas Nosek – Jesper Boqvist
Gus Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola – Dmitry Kulikov
Uvis Balinskis – Nate Schmidt
Scratches: Jonah Gadjovich
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